COMPUTERS AND OLD TESTAMENT GODS, PART I

Nancy Nehlsen

President

I never believed barcodes would actually be used to scan groceries. I resisted getting a fax machine, because I thought it was a passing trend (well, it was, but not in the way I thought). And when an employee beseeched me to buy computers for the office in 1985, I said exactly what Rutherford B. Hayes said when Bell demonstrated the telephone to him at the White House, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?" The early eighties were a tough time for me technologically. Imagine the struggles I’ve faced in the past three decades.

In 1902, the United States Commissioner of Patents reportedly said, “Everything that can be invented – has already been invented." While some say the esteemed commissioner was misquoted, I can relate to his flawed speculation. They had to pry my floppy disks from my arthritic fingers, and I still lament the superiority of DOS.

No, technology is not my thing. That’s why I’ve gone out and found the best young “techy types” that are available and hired them. The young whippersnappers can play with their BOTS and their SIPS. I’ll stick to writing, client management and browsing famous quotation sites to defend my ignorance.

But, the reason I share my ignorance with you is to make a very valuable point. Those of us beyond a certain age are relatively unaware of how many ways we can use the newest technologies to our advantage. Not to mention what mistakes we may be making that can actually hurt us.

Did you know that web designers of other sites can hide links on your site to boost their own SEO, while putting your site at risk for being blacklisted? Did you know that Google is now penalizing sites that are not mobile-friendly? In other words, if you don’t have a mobile site you will drop in the Google rankings, making it difficult for visitors to find your site. I knew that most cell phone users had switched to smartphone technology, but never thought there’d actually be apenaltyfor being technologically slow (probably because there were no internet police by the name of Google until more recently).

With increasing regularity, the Nehlsen web team points out something one of our new clients is doing wrong that can cause them to lose credibility, thus losing visitors to their sites. We immediately fix it for them, of course; but think of the business they lost before we found the SPAM or designed a mobile site for them.

If you haven’t had a really smart, techy type (preferably of the younger generation) analyze and evaluate your website recently, just remember what Joseph Campbell said in The Power of Myth, “Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.”